THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY
based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more …
August 13
August 13
1853 – Raphael Gallenti, a sailor from Malta arrives a San Quentin prison. He is thought to be the first person to be arrested for sodomy in California. He served a five-year sentence at San Quentin.
Gene Raymond and Jeanette MacDonald
1908 – Gene Raymond (d.1998) was a leading man of stage, film, and TV, singer, composer, writer, director, producer, decorated military pilot, and, for twenty-eight years, the first and only husband of singer/actress Jeanette MacDonald.
A popular film actor in the 1930s and 40s, like many pre-war stars, his film career fell away after his military service but he enjoyed further success on television up until the 1970s, and was active behind the scenes in the industry with the Screen Actors Guild, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and other organisations.
Ten years after McDonald's death in 1965, he married for a second time and that marriage lasted until her death in 1995.
So, why is he here? A 2001 biography of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald, Sweethearts by Sharon Rich, says that Raymond had affairs with men during his marriage to MacDonald. The book includes documentation of Raymond being arrested on three occasions for sex with other men: a photo of Raymond's January 1938 arrest and booking number; a US Army nurse is named and quoted concerning the second arrest; while retired Scotland Yard detective Joe Sampson confirms the third arrest, which occurred in England during World War II.
The book also claims that Louis B. Mayer engineered the marriage of MacDonald to Raymond - even though Mayer knew Raymond was bisexual - to prevent MacDonald from marrying Eddy. Mayer was concerned that a MacDonald-Eddy marriage would end in divorce, due to their temperaments, then he would lose his lucrative box office team. Also, Eddy wanted children and preferred MacDonald to at least semi-retire, which didn't please the studio mogul.
While Mayer blessed the MacDonald-Raymond union, he had Raymond blacklisted following his 1938 arrest. ... but the marriage lasted.
1952 – On this date the photographer Herb Ritts was born (d. 2002), The American fashion photographer concentrated on black-and-white photography and portraits in the style of classical Greek sculpture. Consequently some of his more famous pieces are of male and female nudes in what can be called glamour photography.
Ritts was born in Los Angeles, California to a prosperous family who owned a furniture business. He received an economics degree from Bard College in upstate New York in 1974 and soon after returned to Los Angeles to work as a sales representative for his family's business. He came out as Gay to his parents while in college; they were accepting and supportive.
"Fred with Tires"
He became interested in photography when he and friend Richard Gere, then an aspiring actor decided to shoot some photographs in front of an old jacked up Buick. The picture gained Ritts some coverage and he began to be more serious about photography. He photographed Brooke Shields for the cover of the Oct. 12, 1981 edition of Elle and he photographed Olivia Newton-John for her Physical album in 1981. Five years later he would replicate that cover pose with Madonna for her 1986 release True Blue.
He took many fashion and nude photos of supermodel Cindy Crawford and eventually set her up with his good friend, actor Richard Gere, at a BBQ held at his mother Shirley's house. The couple married four years later in 1991, but divorced in 1995.
He also worked for the magazines, Interview, Esquire, Mademoiselle, Glamour, GQ, Newsweek, Harper's Bazaar, Rolling Stone, Time, Vogue, Allure, Vanity Fair, Details, as well as Elle.
The first video he directed was Madonna in "Cherish" in 1989. In 1991, he won two MTV Video Awards for his work on music videos by Janet Jackson and Chris Isaak. Ritts also directed the music video for Michael Jackson's "In the Closet", which featured supermodel Naomi Campbell. Ritts also worked on other projects, including directing and acting, on Mariah Carey's video collection #1's (1999), Jennifer Lopez's sepia video "Ain't It Funny", Janet Jackson's Design of a Decade 1986/1996 (1996), Intimate Portrait: Cindy Crawford (1998), Murder in the First (1995), and Britney Spears' "Don't Let Me Be The Last To Know (2001).
On December 26, 2002, Ritts died of complications from pneumonia at the age of 50. According to Ritts' publicist, "Herb was HIV-positive, but this particular pneumonia was not PCP (pneumocystis pneumonia), a common opportunistic infection of AIDS. But at the end of the day, his immune system was compromised." He is survived by his partner, Erik Hyman, an entertainment attorney.
1957 – David Crane is an American writer and producer, born in Philadelphia. He was one of the creators of the hugely successful TV sitcom Friends in 1994, along with his longtime friend Marta Kauffman. In 1996 he created and executive produced the sitcom Veronica's Closet, which starred Kirstie Alley.
He is primarily known for his comedic writing. Crane lives with his partner, Jeffrey Klarik. Together, they have created a new Friends-like sitcom, The Class.
Disappointingly, unlike several of his gay TV writer/producer contemporaries, Crane failed to introduce any significant gay characters in ten years' of Friends.
In 2011, it was announced that Crane and Jeffrey Klarik have created a new sitcom made for the BBC. Airing first in the US on Showtime on Sunday January 9, 2011 at 9:30 pm and then on BBC Two on Monday January 10, 2011 at 10 pm, it is called Episodes and features Friends star Matt LeBlanc and Green Wing's Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig. Its first season has some delightfully funny episodes, particularly the two which deal with Matt's "monster." (Monster penis, that is!)
Domenico Dolce (top) and Stefano Gabbana
1958 – On this date the Italian fashion designer Domenico Dolce was born in Polizzi Generosa (Palermo). He still works together with ex-partner Stefano Gabbana (Dolce & Gabbana).
Dolce's native island of Sicily, a place Gabbana had fallen in love with on holiday, became the bond between the two when they met in the early 1980s, when they worked for the same design studio in Milan. In 1982 the two men left the design company where they were working when they met to pursue separate consulting careers, but they continued to share an office as well as a private life. After eighteen months, they decided to join forces and the Dolce & Gabbana label was born. Milan's governing fashion organization, the Camera Nazionale, recognized them as up-and-coming talent and invited them to show their first womenswear collection, called "real woman," during Milan fashion week.
In 1982, the first D&G studio was opened. By 2005 their turnover was €597 million. In 1993, Dolce & Gabbana designed 1500 costumes for Madonna's world tour of 'The Girlie Show'. The D&G Company also produces perfumes.
For some 19 years, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana were partners in life as well as in business. Their personal relationship, which commenced soon after their meeting in the early 1980s, was well documented and they spoke freely about their home life as well as their business partnership in interviews. In fact, the home they shared together, Villa Volpe, a nineteenth-century palazzo in the heart of Milan, was the subject of much discussion in the press.
In February 2005 Dolce and Gabbana broke up as lovers. According to Gabbana, they "had been drifting apart for about five years" prior to the split. The two remain friends and are still working together. Both say that they are committed to the ongoing success of their fashion house and that they plan to remain partners in the business even though they are no longer together as a couple.
Champion (R) with husband Rubem Robierb
1961 – Sam Champion was the weather anchor of ABC's Good Morning America and weather editor of ABC News.
Champion is not a meteorologist, but gained weather forecasting knowledge through his broadcast work. He has occasionally appeared on Live! with Kelly and Michael, the daily talk show produced by WABC-TV, and CNN's Larry King Live. He often began his 30-second weathercasts by saying "Let's get to the boards." His catchphrase during weather reports for local ABC stations was, "That's the weather around the nation. Here's what you can expect this morning."
Champion is active in many charitable organizations in the New York City area. He was the Grand Marshal of the Multiple Sclerosis Society Fall Bike Tour, the chairman of the 25th annual March of Dimes NYC WalkAmerica, and master of ceremonies of "Stopping AIDS Together", a part of Sunday by the Bay. He hosted the New York City Project's 2002 "Courage Awards", along with movie critic Frank DeCaro.
Sam Champion officially came out in October 2012 by announcing he planned to marry partner Rubem Robierb. They married December 21, 2012.
Champion recalled all the well-wishes he received from across the country and in the Big Apple.
"I felt like we lived in a small town," he said of all the well-wishing. "I was born in Paducah, Kentucky, and to me that's exactly what it felt like. We walked out on the street and everyone was like, 'Hey, congratulations.'"
Sam Champion is no longer with ABC news. He is now the morning anchor on the Weather Channel.
1986 – Wesley Taylor is an American stage actor and writer, probably best known for his work on Broadway, Television, and his original web content.
Born in New Jersey, but raised in Orlando, Florida, Taylor graduated from the theatre magnet at Dr. Phillips High School and holds a BFA in acting from North Carolina School of the Arts. At the latter, Taylor performed as Falstaff in Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2 and Action in West Side Story.
Taylor's parents once resided in China, where they taught at a university: "[I]t's kind of hard for them to come and see the shows I'm in. I always get a little jealous of other people's families … But my parents – I love them and I totally respect them. They kind of didn't want to settle into being bored in middle age, and they wanted to start over and move to a different country."He is openly gay. He and Matt Doyle dated, but broke up in 2012. During their relationship, they performed at each other's concerts, dueting Jason Mraz's "Lucky", The Beatles' "Across the Universe", and "Are You There" from bare: A Pop Opera.
1993 – Russia: The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission reports that lesbians and gay men are still jailed though Russia had legalized homosexual acts between consenting adults earlier in the year.
